Both CppDepend and SonarQube are static analyzers that offer a rule-based system to detect problems in C/C++ code. However, the CppDepend default Rules-Set has very few overlaps with the SonarQube rules
Basically, the SonarQube rules are good at analyzing what is happening inside a method, the code flow while the CppDepend code model, on which the CppDepend rules are based, is optimized for a 360 view of particular higher-scale areas including OOP, dependencies, metrics, breaking changes, mutability, naming...
Concretely SonarQube rules can warn about problems like a reference could be null, while CppDepend can warn you about too complex classes or components, and offer advice about how to refactor to make the code cleaner and more maintainable. Another point that makes the CppDepend ruling system unique is wie einfach es das Schreiben eigener Regeln macht. With CppDepend a rule is a LINQ query, that queries a code model dedicated to code quality, edited live in Visual Studio, compiled and executed live at edition time. Concretely, this piece of code below is a fully functional rule, could it be simpler?
// <Name>Classes must start with an I</Name>
warnif count > 0
Application.Types.Where(t => t.IsClass && !t.SimpleName.StartsWith("C"))
When defining a custom rule with CppDepend, the user doesn't need to create a project, create a source file, step into the edit/compile/debug cycle, maintain a binary dll that requires effort to be shared, versioned and integrated. With CppDepend custom rules are raw texts, embedded as XML CDATA into the CppDepend project or rule files. Also, the documentation and how-to-fix guidelines can be embedded in the rule source code as comments.
Also, each CppDepend rule can present its issues with extra data that will help to understand the problem and fix it. Moreover, each rule can embed two formulas that attempt to estimate both the Kosten der Problembehebung und die jährliche Kosten, das Problem unbehoben zu lassen, auch genannt technische-schuld und die jährliche Zinsen des Problems. Since these formulas rely on what really matters at fix time, this makes the debt estimations smart.
Finally, with CppDepend each rule is run in a few milliseconds even on a large code base. As a consequence, all rules can be passed in a few seconds (typically 2 or 3 seconds on a real-world code base), both in Visual Studio and in the Continuous-Integration system. As a benefit, after each compilation and also at check-in time, the developer instantly knows about the new and fixed issues since the baseline, and the impact in terms of technical debt fixed or created. Now let's explain how to integrate CppDepend rule results into the SonarQube system to cumulate the strength of both products. I - C/C++ Plugin Prerequisites
- Installieren SonarQube.
- Installieren SonarQube Scanner or the old Sonar Runner.
- Fügen Sie das bin-Verzeichnis von SonarQube Scanner oder SonarRunner zur PATH-Umgebungsvariable hinzu.
- Copy the sonar-cxx-plugin-cppdepend-1.0 from $CppDependInstallDir$/SonarPlugin to the $SonarQubeInstallDir$\extensions\plugins directory and restart SonarQube.
- Die Standard-CppDepend-Regeln werden in das SonarQube-Regelrepository geladen. Wenn Sie diese Regeln jedoch anpassen müssen, können Sie Ihre eigenen benutzerdefinierten Regeln über den .cdproj-Dateipfad definieren, der sich unter der Registerkarte SonarQube Administration befindet.
- Sie müssen sich als Admin anmelden und die CppDepend-Regeln im gewünschten Profil aktivieren.
- Execute $CppDependInstallDir$/SonarRunnerForCppDepend.exe "the .cdproj file to analyze "For example: SonarRunnerForCppDepend.exe C:\MyWorkspace\test.cdproj. SonarRunnerForCppDepend will analyze the cdproj file using CppDepend and launch the SonarQube Scanner executable to load the results into SonarQube. Any other argument passed to the SonarRunnerForCppDepend after the cdproj file argument will be passed to the SonarScanner command. For example you can pass the version with this command SonarRunnerForCppDepend.exe C:\MyWorkspace\test.cdproj -Dsonar.projectVersion=3.0
- Multi-Modul-Analyse: a CppDepend project could contain many C/C++ projects.
After the analysis, CppDepend does not put all the code in the same SonarQube module. However, it creates a multi-module sonarqube project to isolate each project into a separate module which makes the code navigation very easy.
- Probleme: CppDepend liefert standardmäßig mehr als 250 Regeln, die Sie vollständig anpassen können. CppDepend bietet eine mächtige Möglichkeit, die technische Schuld berechnen der Issues. Die technischen Schulden von CppDepend und der Issue-Schweregrad werden an SonarQube übergeben.
- Standardmetriken: berechnet das Plugin alle Standard-SonarQube-Metriken.
- Code-Duplikation: Die Duplikate werden vom in SonarQube eingebetteten CPD-Tool erkannt.
- Abdeckung: Das Plugin lädt die Abdeckungsergebnisse aus Cobertura- und Microsoft Visual Studio-XML-Ergebnisdateien. Sie müssen jedoch den Pfad festlegen, in dem die XML-Abdeckungsdateien vorhanden sind.
The C/C++ SonarQube plugin is easy to install and to use. The rules customization is very simple. You can try it and give us your feedback.